GOOGLE and CLEARWIRE - Team Up for WiMAX AppsEnjoy the read
https://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/clearwire-offer-google-applications/story.aspx?guid=%7B23E46A5E-F189-48B3-A628-17FFB975DA81%7D
Clearwire to offer Google applications
Wireless-Internet operator teams up with search giant
By Jeffry Bartash, MarketWatch
Last update: 10:19 a.m. EST Jan. 15, 2008Print E-mail RSS Disable Live Quotes
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Clearwire Corp. on Tuesday said it will provide Google applications to its wireless-Internet customers as part of a new collaboration with the search-engine giant.
Kirkland, Wash.-based Clearwire, founded in 2003, is building a nationwide high-speed wireless network based on WiMax technology. The startup has been looking for large partners to enhance its service and make it more attractive to potential customers.
In recent trades, shares of Clearwire (CLWR:clearwire corp cl a
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CLWR 13.49, -0.50, -3.6%) rose 3.6% to $14.49.
Google, for its part, has been seeking to extend its dominance on desktop computers to mobile devices. More and more traffic on the Web is expected to shift to wireless handsets and smartphones that offer an array of services such as news, maps, directions, video and music downloads.
Under the agreement, Clearwire would offer Google's email and calendar applications to its customers. In the future, Clearwire also plans to offer Google's search tools.
Clearwire only has a few hundred thousand customers, but the company could become the first in the U.S. to offer a truly high-speed wireless service comparable in speed to current DSL or cable-broadband offerings.
WiMax is a form of wireless communications that supporters say can deliver high-speed Internet access over greater distances at relatively low cost. Current wireless-Internet service is relatively slow and costly to consumers.
Last year, Clearwire signed a tentative deal with Sprint Nextel Corp. (S:Sprint Nextel Corporation
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S 12.33, -0.03, -0.2%) to jointly build a nationwide WiMax network, but Sprint later pulled out after its chief executive resigned. Sprint's new CEO has yet to commit publicly to WiMax, but some analysts believe the two companies could eventually team up.
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GOOG 637.65, -16.17, -2.5%) is developing an operating system for wireless phones that some carriers, including Sprint, plan to use for some of their mobile devices.
Google launched the project in part to break the stranglehold of wireless carriers on the selection of software used to run phones. By controlling the software on the phones they sell to customers, carriers such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. could freeze Google out.
The operating system, based on open standards and called Android, is supposed to be available later this year. It's unclear, however, what sort of reception the software will receive or how much impact it will have on the wireless industry.
What's more, WiMax is still a largely untested technology, especially from a business perspective. The market is still in its infancy, and it's unclear how fast it will grow or how big it could get.
As of the end of 2007, Clearwire served fewer than 400,000 subscribers, mostly consumers in the U.S., Ireland and Belgium. The company generates about $150 million in annual sales, but it has also racked up huge losses owing to the cost of building a network from scratch.
Jeffry Bartash is a reporter for MarketWatch in Washington.